Risk Specialist II, Whole Foods Market, Product Safety Assurance, Worldwide Grocery Stores (WWGS)

Collaborate with Food Safety Quality Assurance Specialists, Product Developers, Nutrition Compliance Analysts, Private Brands (PB) Merchandising Team, EB Sourcing, adjacent technical teams, and Suppliers. Lead the development and maintenance of product safety specifications and associated requirements for assigned food products sold by WWGSS under Private Brands across higher-complexity product categories such as: Baby Food, Body Care, Produce, Meat, Seafood, Household Cleaning, Pet Food, Prepared Foods, Over the Counter drugs (OTCs), and/or Dietary Supplements. This includes reviewing specifications and testing results to ensure consistent product safety for our customers.

Contribute to commercialization activities by providing technical expertise to help ensure products will meet WWGS PB, safety, regulatory and Quality Standards.

Key job responsibilities

• Develop appropriate chemical, microbiological, physical, and shelf-life test requirements for products based on supplier data, existing testing profiles, all applicable regulatory requirements, food safety, or product safety risk, and all WWGS specific requirements.
• Review applicable product claims and statements and determine criteria for claim validation.
• Partner with Product Developers to incorporate characterizing product attributes into the testing profile.
• Review Supplier Quality Reports and Facility Risk Assessments to determine appropriate risk of product and facility and adjust specification or verification plans accordingly.
• Review Supplier documents and test results to ensure adherence to WWGS PB and regulatory standards, and adherence to agreed WWGS testing profiles.
• Partner with WWGS legal team and cross-functional stakeholders to determine product testing needs to meet state, federal, and international regulatory requirements. Present findings, recommendations, and project decisions to leaders up to 3 tiers above level, as needed.
• Review and approve shelf-life study validation parameters with Suppliers for new and existing products.

Work with external labs and other quality teams to perform regular product quality reviews and end-of-shelf-life reviews to ensure compliance with WWGS standards and regulatory requirements.

• Partner with appropriate stakeholders as needed to determine product performance acceptability and CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) plans for out of specification test results.
• Monitor existing product test results for compliance with ongoing periodic testing per the agreed testing profiles.
• Collaborate with relevant stakeholders on interpretation of data trends, product improvement activities, and test results, as needed.

Drive continuous improvement initiatives across product safety programs, including optimizing testing workflows, supplier communication protocols, and specification development processes. Ensure products meet WWGS PB Safety and Quality Standards, and regulatory requirements, throughout the product lifecycle.

• Act as a mentor and technical resource to other Product Safety Assurance analysts and other EB stakeholders as needed.
• Monitor relevant industry and regulatory trends and changes.
• Assist PSA Leadership with short- and long-term strategies, initiatives, and goals.
• Identify and define key performance indicators (KPIs) for assigned product safety programs. Determine if success metrics are in place for testing profiles, supplier compliance, and risk mitigation activities, and if not, work to define them.
• Negotiate and define product safety program controls applicable to cross-functional partner teams.
• Help partner teams make trade-offs by educating them on the current risk and regulatory environment, recommending a variety of risk-mitigation solutions as appropriate.
• Help recruit and interview for the Product Safety Assurance team, including participating in the hiring process and helping train new members of the team.